


A Lesson in Chivalry

by meretricula



Series: Lady in Waiting [4]
Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-24
Updated: 2019-06-24
Packaged: 2020-05-19 03:40:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19348753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meretricula/pseuds/meretricula
Summary: Kel's jousting improves, to the delight of her new friends and the displeasure of others.





	A Lesson in Chivalry

The too-beautiful Joren of Stone Mountain haunted Keladry throughout the midwinter festival. The princess and her ladies teased each other behind closed doors about their respective conquests — Yukimi had flirted indiscriminately with all the squires except Neal and reaped a harvest of poorly phrased poetry, while Haname had lingered over her conversations with Hakuin Seastone and serenely ignored any commentary from her fellow ladies-in-waiting — but on the subject of Joren, there was no laughter. "That one has poison on his silver tongue," Haname said. "You should be careful, Keladry." 

Kel had no intention of getting close enough to Joren for him to bite, but somehow he always seemed to be lurking nearby, sometimes with his cronies, sometimes alone, always smiling as though he knew a secret. He made the hair on the back of Kel's neck stand up, but at least he seemed to have transferred his attention from the princess to her. 

"We have attracted an audience," she remarked to Neal in the morning, as they assembled for tilting practice in the gray predawn light. Owen yawned and listed to the side, dangerously close to Peachblossom's teeth; Kel grabbed the reins only just in time to keep her horse from lunging. Seaver herded Owen back to his own horse before he could provoke further mischief. 

"Hmm," Neal said. His eyes flicked up to the fence where Joren and his followers perched, but made no other acknowledgement. "Mount up, fellows, time for the lady to embarrass us all." 

Kel let Yancen and Cleon take the first turn at the quintains, and contrary to Neal's pessimism, they both hit the target cleanly, thundering past the dummy as the sandbag swung aside. She took her place next to Owen with an encouraging smile and hefted the solid, comforting weight of her lance. The world fell away as she focused on the small painted circle on her quintain's shield. "Charge," she said, and Peachblossom obliged. 

"Kel!" Neal and Cleon whooped with glee from the starting spot. Owen, less fortunate, rubbed his bruised side but still mustered a smile for her success. Joren, when she glanced up at the fence, was still and silent. 

"May I try again?" she asked politely as she rejoined the squires waiting for their turn at the quintain. Balduin shrugged and backed his gelding away, letting her take his place beside Neal. 

"Are you so sorry you didn't get a proper bruising that you need another try?" Neal teased. She didn't bother to force her mouth into a smile, still concentrating on the target. She could still feel the cool isolation that had surrounded her as Peachblossom thundered toward the quintain, the inexplicable knowledge that she would succeed, like the first time she had thrown Nariko as a child or when she had first been allowed to run a pattern dance at full speed. The weight of the lance in her hand, the speed at which Peachblossom charged, the angle at which to aim, the tiny circle of the target rapidly growing larger: she could hold it all in her head, calculated and perfect, but she no longer needed to think about it. She had it. 

The quintain swung aside again as she hit the target circle dead-on. This time, as Peachblossom trotted back to the others, they made room for her without asking, letting her take her place at the start of the lists alone. "Charge," she told Peachblossom for the third time. 

Neal was waiting for her on the other side of the quintain, beaming fit to split his face in two. "Kel, you stoic menace, smile for once!" he called. "I knew you'd get it! Lads, what did I tell you? The lady will have us all unhorsed by midsummer!" 

"How clever," Joren said loudly, cutting through Owen and Cleon's cheers. "I see our royal dancing bear has learned a new trick. Perhaps her mistress will let her give us all a show someday." The ugly look on his face vanished a moment later, replaced by his usual beautiful smile, but Kel thought it would linger in her memory for a long time, as would the kiss he blew in her direction before he hopped down from the fence and sauntered back toward the palace. His coterie of cronies tittered among themselves as they followed. 

"Joren's always been awful," Owen said from just behind Kel, and she had to grab at the reins to keep Peachblossom from twisting around to bite him. "Not to mention he can't stand when anyone's better than he is at anything. Don't pay him any mind, Lady Kel." 

"On the contrary," Kel said quietly, her gaze fixed on Joren's silver-blond head as it receded in the distance. "I intend to mind him very closely indeed."


End file.
